Monday, 3 June 2013

"...In the 1970s, the music of Detroit could be split into two powerful
scenes:the black soul, funk and R&B of Motown and the white rock
'n' roll of The Stooges, MC5, Bob Seger and Alice Cooper. Somewhere in the middle was "Death". Bobby Hackney sang in the band, which also featured his brothers: Dannis played drums; David played guitar and wrote the songs. "We
didn't fit in at all," says Bobby. "The rock bands that we identified
with ... we didn't hang out with those guys. We were in the inner city,
on the east side, in the black community. Most of the bands were doing
stuff like Al Green, Earth Wind & Fire, The Isley Brothers. Being in the black community and having a rock band,
people just looked at us like we was weird. After we got done with a
song, instead of cheering and clapping, people would just be looking at
us."

"...Not only were they the first black punk band -- they were arguably
the first punk band...period.

In 1974 the group...was approached by Columbia Records mogul Clive Davis for a record deal,
but Davis requested the band choose a more commercially relatable group
name. Death refused. Bobby explained to NPR, the "concept was spinning death from the negative to the positive. It was a hard sell."

"I was just
floored. I was blown away. I just couldn't believe that it came out of
our bloodline," he says. "I immediately called my father and I was like,
'Dad, why didn't you tell us about Death? Why didn't you ever show us
these recordings? They're amazing.'" Bobby Jr., two of his
brothers and two of their friends formed a band called Rough Francis to
play Death's songs. The legend grew of an uncompromising black rock band
that predated punk, and last year, the independent label Drag City
released the 1975 album, called ...For The World To See. For
Bobby Sr., the belated recognition is bittersweet. "David never wavered
on the fact that the world one day would know about Death," says his
brother. "He always believed it, right to the very end. ...And he said, "Listen, the world's gonna come
looking for this music". This was maybe a
year before he died. "We have a saying, my
brother and I: 'We're like passengers on a train, man. We're just gonna
ride it to the station....And we don't know how long the journey will be, but one thing we
will do, and we're committed to doing, and that is to honor our brother
David every step of the way."...

Rejected for their sound, their name, and their color, 34 years later the band "Death" began receiving what is now world-wide recognition for the Rock`N`Roll music they created. An independent film titled "A Band Called "Death": The Documentary", was released in 2012, telling the unbelievable story of these visionary musicians...

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